


My Grown-Up Christmas List

by Dreamin



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-28 10:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20062582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamin/pseuds/Dreamin
Summary: When Pepper Stark's heart breaks over a song, Stephen Strange is right there to comfort her.





	My Grown-Up Christmas List

**Author's Note:**

  * For [afteriwake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/gifts), [BeautifullyObsessed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautifullyObsessed/gifts).

> Inspired by the Natalie Cole song "Grown-Up Christmas List."
> 
> (This is a standalone, not part of the _What Happens After_ series.)

The second December after Tony’s death, Pepper Stark found herself actually looking forward to Christmas. She had still been grieving deeply the previous year, only setting aside her own feelings to give her daughter the best, happiest Christmas possible.

_Thank God for friends,_ she thought now as she sorted through boxes of Christmas decorations. Most were those she and Tony bought or made together, some were Tony’s from his youth, and some were her own childhood decorations. _Happy, Rhodey, and Peter were as supportive last Christmas as always._

The one source of support she’d had then, and continued to have, that she never would have expected was Dr. Stephen Strange. His open, unwavering support of all of them was something they appreciated, but she knew he saw that she and Morgan needed more support than the others, so he made himself available to them more. Unless he was saving the planet, or the dimension, he was never more than a phone call away.

Digging through a box of her Christmas things, she found a small stack of papers and chuckled when she realized they were letters to Santa she had written as a child. _I can’t believe Mom kept these._

Morgan wandered into the living room and looked surprised when she saw the boxes. “Did somebody send us presents, Mommy?”

Pepper smiled at her. “No, sweetie, these are our Christmas decorations.” She sat down cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the circle of boxes then gently pulled Morgan into her lap. “Some of these were your daddy’s when he was a child, some were mine, some are things your daddy and I had together.”

Morgan reached over to pick up the letters to Santa. “What are these?”

Pepper chuckled. “They’re letters I wrote to Santa when I was little.”

“Didn’t Santa get them?”

“He did. He read them then he gave them to my mother, your grandmother, for safekeeping.” She grinned. “If Santa kept every letter that every child wrote to him, he’d run out of room at the North Pole.”

“Can I write a letter to Santa too?”

“Sure, sweetie. Let’s go to the table and you can dictate.”

“Okay.”

Morgan got up then Pepper stood and followed her into the kitchen and over to the kitchen table. The child climbed into her chair with its booster seat and Pepper sat down across from her. Picking up her notepad and pen, she flipped to an empty page then smiled at Morgan. “What would you like to say to Santa?”

“Hmm…,” Morgan said, thinking it over. “‘Dear Santa, How are you?’”

Pepper chuckled fondly. “That’s a good way to start a letter. What would you like for Christmas?”

“I want a unicorn that can turn into a duck, a storybook about the moon, and a baby brother.”

Pepper, who was writing down everything her daughter said, stopped at the last thing and looked up at her, surprised, then she said gently, “Sweetie, you can’t have a baby brother.”

“Why not?” Morgan asked, confused. “My friend Jo has a baby brother. He’s cute.”

“Yes, but a mommy can’t make a baby by herself, there has to be a daddy.”

“Oh,” Morgan said quietly. After a moment, she named a few more toys she wanted and Pepper wrote them down, but Morgan’s enthusiasm had definitely waned.

* * *

That night, after Morgan was in bed, Pepper had an impulse to write her own letter to Santa. Flipping to a fresh page, she wondered what to write when a new song started playing from her iPod – “Grown-Up Christmas List.” She liked the song but it had never been one of her favorites. It had never resonated with her.

Until now.

She was humming along, thinking about what she could ask “Santa” for, when the song got to the list itself and the words hit Pepper hard.

_No more lives torn apart,_

_That wars would never start,_

_And time would heal all hearts,_

_Every man would have a friend,_

_That right would always win,_

_And love would never end…_

She didn’t realize she was crying until a familiar pair of scarred hands offered her a handkerchief and a glass of water. She looked up to see Stephen sitting across from her, a look of gentle concern in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked softly. “I came as soon as the ward alerted me.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, utterly confused, as she took the handkerchief and wiped her eyes.

“I have your entire home warded with magic so that if you or Morgan are afraid or upset in any way, I’ll know it.”

“Like a magical security system?” She took a sip of the water, though it was a little hard to swallow around the lump in her throat.

“Exactly. It alerted me that someone here is upset. What’s wrong?”

_It seems so silly now._ “Um, listening to Natalie Cole’s ‘Grown-Up Christmas List’ opened the floodgates.”

“Music by David Foster, lyrics by Linda Thompson-Jenner, from his _River of Love_ album, 1990,” Stephen rattled off from memory. “It wasn’t a hit but I like it.” His eyes widened slightly and she knew he was remembering the lyrics. “Yeah, I can see how it would upset you.”

“Christmas songs don’t normally make me weepy,” she explained, then she smiled weakly. “Except for ‘The Christmas Shoes.’”

Stephen chuckled. “NewSong, _Sheltering Tree _album, 2000. It spent a week at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. That song is weaponized sentimentality.”

“You see it for what it is,” Pepper said, smiling a bit, “but I bet you still get choked up every time.”

He grinned sheepishly. “Guilty.” Then his tone softened. “But ‘Grown-Up Christmas List,’ that’s a lot more relevant to your life right now.”

“All our lives,” she insisted. “I’m not the only person who lost someone.”

“You don’t need to downplay your loss, Pepper,” he said gently. “I saw those five years you had together, I knew how very much in love you and Tony were.”

Pepper nodded, saying quietly, “We made up for the all the time we wasted after Sokovia.”

He said after a moment, “Did you two ever talk about what you wanted the other to do if one of you died first?”

“I told him if I died first, I wanted him to find a woman who loved him and Morgan with all her heart.” She smiled weakly. “But if he didn’t wait at least a year before dating again, I’d haunt her.”

He chuckled. “I assume Tony said something similar?”

“He just told me to follow my heart.”

“Smart man – your heart hasn’t led you astray yet.”

Pepper smiled weakly. “You only say that because you never met my high school boyfriends.”

Stephen chuckled again then he noticed Morgan’s letter. “What’s this?” he asked, picking it up.

“Oh, that’s Morgan’s letter to Santa.”

“It’s in shorthand.”

Pepper chuckled. “I haven’t converted it yet. It says-”

“She wants a unicorn that turns into a duck,” he said, reading it easily, “a storybook about the moon,” his eyebrows shot into his hair, “and a baby brother?”

She smiled a bit. “When did you learn shorthand?”

He looked up at her. “Medical school. What did you tell her when she said she wanted a brother?”

“I told her that a mommy can’t make a baby by herself.”

“How’d she take it?”

“Not well, it took the wind out of her sails. I’m just glad the other things on her list are easy to get.”

Stephen nodded as he read the rest. “Barbies, a bike, a tea set.” He looked up at her. “I can get her the first two things on the list but I think the third is entirely up to you,” he smiled a bit, “though, as you pointed out, not you alone.” When she chuckled, he added, smiling, “Maybe this is the universe’s way of saying you and Morgan deserve another chance at happiness.”

There was something in his eyes she couldn’t quite place. “Stephen?”

“I should get back to the Sanctum Sanctorum.” He reached out to lay a hand over hers, smiling gently, “I think you’re going to be fine.”

She smiled back. “I always am after I talk to you.”

Stephen got up, leaned to kiss her cheek, then he formed a portal. “Call me if you need anything.”

“I will.”

* * *

The next day, Pepper supervised as Morgan cleaned her room. When the child picked up a piece of paper with indecipherable squiggles, glared at it, then crumpled it up and threw it in the trash bag, Pepper had to know what was on it.

“Morgan?” she asked gently as she fished the wad out of the bag and straightened it out. “What’s this?”

“I wrote a letter to Santa this morning but it was stupid.”

“What does it say?”

“I asked for another daddy so I could have a baby brother. But now Santa thinks I don’t love Daddy.”

“Oh, sweetie...” She gently pulled her daughter into a hug. “Santa knows how much you love your daddy. And some kids do have more than one.”

“So, it’s not stupid?”

“Not at all.”

“Okay.” Morgan held out the paper. “Could you send this to Santa too?”

Pepper nodded. “Sure, sweetie.” _It can’t hurt for her to want something, even if it’ll never happen, right?_

* * *

Christmas morning, bright and way too early, Pepper and Morgan were sitting in front of the Christmas tree as Morgan happily tore into her presents. Pepper had wrapped all of the presents from her in red paper and the presents from “Santa” in green paper, but the two addressed to Morgan that were wrapped in gold paper were a complete mystery.

Morgan opened the large, flat one, revealing a storybook titled _The Man In The Moon_. “Ooo! This is from Santa too!”

Pepper checked the discarded paper – there was no “from” name on the tag. “Yeah, it must be from Santa,” she said, though she suspected the real sender had a name that also started with S.

Morgan opened the other, larger present. Inside the cardboard box was a plush pale pink unicorn with a hot pink mane and tail, and a zipper down its stomach. When Morgan opened the zipper then turned the unicorn inside-out, it became a plush yellow duck. Her face lit up in delight. “This is just what I asked Santa for!”

Pepper chuckled. “Santa always knows how to find just the right present.”

Morgan looked up at her, curious. “What about my other letter?”

Before Pepper could respond, the telltale sound of a portal opening announced Stephen’s arrival. He came into the room and smiled at them happily, a McDonald’s bag in one hand and a drink carrier with two coffees and an orange juice in the other. “Merry Christmas, Stark ladies.”

“Hi, Stephen!” Morgan said, delighted as always to see him.

“Merry Christmas, Stephen,” Pepper said, smiling just as happily.

“I had a feeling you two went straight to the gifts so I thought I’d take care of breakfast.”

“Yay!” Morgan said as she jumped up and ran to the kitchen.

Pepper got up and smiled at Stephen gratefully. “Thank you,” she said softly. “You didn’t have to do this.” She lowered her voice to add, “Any of it.”

Stephen chuckled. “I take it she liked the book and the uniduck?”

She giggled. “‘Uniduck?’”

He grinned. “What else was I going to call it? ‘Duckicorn’ sounds silly.”

Pepper grinned back. “You’re right, it does.” She kissed his cheek then gently took the bag and carrier from him and walked with him into the kitchen.

* * *

The following Christmas, Morgan’s favorite present of all was the Big Sister shirt her mother and stepfather gave her, along with the promise that she would have a baby brother in the spring.


End file.
